Chapter Overview

Tracing the Roots – The French Connection – Small Arms and Mr Cummings – Changing Old Assumptions. With the end of the Cold War, the role of arms brokers and trafficking agents has been changing rapidly. Governments have been slow in meeting these new challenges, as this report shows.

Prelude to Genocide – Trying to Stop Further Deliveries – The South African Who Cleared a Million Dollars – Swiss Banking Arrangements – The Anglo-French Offshore Method – Who Cares About the Missing Million? – Bartering Arms for the Brazzaville Massacres. Rwanda: a blow-by-blow account of how brokers and transport agents arranged the supply of arms used to commit international crimes against humanity.

Eastern Europe plays a central role in international arms brokering, with companies supplying cheap small arms, ammunition, grenades, military vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and attack/transport helicopters. Also in the West, uncontrolled surpluses from the Cold War get siphoned off into the international marketplace, as is documented here.

Air Trafficking to UNITA – Ex-Soviet Business Steps In – Flying the Red Sea Routes. Beneath a cargo plane’s external paintwork and its simple registration number lie the intricacies of the international aviation business – and a mass of possible loopholes. Arms have been found described as ‘agricultural equipment’, ‘spare parts’, ‘fish’, ‘tents’ and ‘second-hand clothing’. A cargo aircraft can be registered in one country, leased and chartered by companies registered in another, with crews hired in yet other countries.

Indian Ocean and the Sea Pigeons – Embargo-Busting Ships from Argentina – The Broker Called ‘Lasnaud’. Ninety percent of all world trade is maritime trade, and considerable quantities of arms are ferried by sea. The countries variously involved in the cases cited here include the USA, Mexico, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Seychelles, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Israel, Croatia, Tanzania, Ecuador, Denmark, Argentina – and a host of others.

US Sting Operation – Exploiting the NATO Weak Link – Back to the High-Tech Future – ‘Drop Shipping’. The paradoxical situation of the USA: loose legal controls on domestic guns sales and ownership contrast with a tough new US law on international arms brokering. Also: the case of pepper sprays and stun weapons masquerading as ‘key chains’, ‘fountain pens’, ‘jogging weights’,’ electrical volt units’ and ‘portable door locks’.

Identifying Common Underlying Problems: Scope of Controls; Export and Import Licenses; Transit Documents; Transport Documents; Surplus Stocks and Production; Arms Embargoes; Tax Havens and Front Companies – What About International Law and Standards? – International Negotiations to Limit Small Arms – and an appeal from the UN Secretary-General